.oO Tailwind

I caught this posting over at the official Google blog, you can now view sunsets from around the world simply by switching on the Sunrise Earth layer within the Discover Networks list.

from the Google blog:

‘Many of us aren’t lucky enough to experience one of nature’s most glorious sights—the beauty of the sunrise—every day, let alone on demand. That is, until today. Now there’s a Google Earth layer that brings the sun’s ascent right to your computer screen, and Google Earth aficionados can also see video vignettes drawn from Discovery HD Theater’s “Sunrise Earth” program’

Go check it out, it rocks my disco. Watch the sunrise at Stonehenge, in the rice fields of China or at the Mayan temples.

Why oh why oh why to mobile phone manufacturers set the keypad tones of their phones to be on by default?

‘Beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeeep, beep, beeeeeep’.

I’m sat next to a guy on the train at 6:50 am and he’s beeping at me!

Surely no-one in their right mind wants it switched on? I presume the only reason I ever hear it in public is because the perpetrator doesn’t know how to switch it off.

Damn them.

Hello. How are you doing? It’s been a while hasn’t it?

I hope you all had great Christmases and I apologise for being away for so long, Januray has been the month that never was. Where did it go? How warm was it?

Anyway, I was shown this ‘thing‘ the other day that reminded me that I should never be too busy for my blog and that I started it with a view to sharing wonderful things.

The Delicious library is a piece of software that you download and it allows you to use your iSight (or ugly usb peripheral if you’re not on a Mac) as a barcode scanner. Hold up a book in front of it, show it he bardcode and Delicious Library will find the ISBN information from Amazon and add the book and an image of it to your virtual shelf. ALl the useful and interesting book information is drawn down from Amazon and it employs that iTunes icon that suggestes ‘buy more from this person’. It’s amazing how subtle that little arrow thing is, yet out of the context of iTunes it still works.

Anyway, here is a screenshot for you:

You can use it to scan music and DVDs too.

Wow. Bonkers.

I love it when stuff like this works. It’s magic!

To use it in full costs $40 which is a MASSIVE shame, but the demo gives you 25 imports, which for my money is not enough to get you hooked. Personally I think this sort of thing should be provided free by Amazon. It’s a fantastic way to build up a better undestanding of your customer base based on tapping into the inate human desire to log things, record them and share them of course!

I have this personal issue where I often ask people to buy me books or films for birthdays and Christmas etc. But they never know what I have and don’t have, this would be great for that, its a far nicer way to browse what I have and view my Wish List.

Come on Amazon, buy up and distribute this sucker!